Morgan Stanley Cancels Holiday Bashes

After bringing Wall Street’s leading investment banks to their knees, the financial crisis has put another once-proud tradition on the endangered species list: bankers’ holiday parties.

From the New York Post:

Banking company Morgan Stanley - having weathered a financial crisis that crippled profits and took its shares on a wild roller-coaster ride - has cancelled all plans for Christmas festivities this year, according to an internal memo distributed Friday that was obtained by The Post.

Christmas parties are a big deal at banks - a chance to blow off steam after a year's worth of unbridled dealmaking - so it's no small issue for top brass to cut them out.

After months of dreary headlines about layoffs and bankruptcies at competing banks, Morgan bankers lamented to The Post about the kibosh put to the year-end bashes, which now add to the insult of their nonexistent bonuses…

Morgan's sober move follows similar measures at rivals including Barclays, which last month informed employees - including those corralled from its acquisition of Lehman Bros.' North American business -that the crisis was forcing firms to rethink the idea of spending company cash for a big party.

Reader Comments Read all comments (4)

Add Your Thoughts

Comment Name State Select One AL AK AZ AR CA CO CT DE DC FL GA HI ID IL IN IA KS KY LA ME MD MA MI MN MS MO MT NE NV NH NJ NM NY NC ND OH OK OR PA RI SC SD TN TX UT VT VA WA WV WI WY International Email

Please enter the two words below into the text field underneath the image.

Incorrect please try again

Enter the words above: Enter the numbers you hear:

Your comment will be posted immediately, unless it is spam or contains profanity. For more information, please see our Comments FAQ.